Growth hormone mitigates against lethal irradiation and enhances hematologic and immune recovery in mice and nonhuman primates.

cancer pharmacogenomics
drug induced neuropathy, neutropenia and hypertension
statistical genetics
statistical methods for high-dimensional data
copulas
survival analysis
statistical computing

Dr. Gesty-Palmer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Her laboratory principally examines G protein-coupled receptor signaling mechanisms in bone metabolism with emphasis on parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptor biased agonism. These studies explore novel mechanisms of PTH receptor signaling and the contributions of β-arrestin to modulate bone formation and bone resorption. Her work has recently shown that β-arrestin, classically thought to turn off G protein signaling, activates a distinct G protein-independent signaling mechanism to stimulate bone formation. Examination of β-arrestin mediated signaling events may provide novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of metabolic bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Dr. Gesty-Palmer is the recipient of a BIRCWH Scholar Award for Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health in 2006 and an Arthritis Foundation Investigator Award in 2007.

My research interests are in two broad areas, clinical hematopoietic stem cell and cord blood transplantation and in the laboratory studies related to graft vs. host disease and immune reconstitution. On the clinical side we are currently conducting approximately 50 different clinical protocols ranging from preparatory regimens, supportive care studies and disease specific protocols. Most of these clinical studies are centered around studies of the sources of stem cells and the methods to improve the long term outcome. There are exploratory protocols for novel therapies such as dendritic cell therapy for several malignancies, antiangiogenesis therapy, graft engineering to prevent graft-versus-host disease and antigen specific T cells or non specific NK cells to prevent relapse. Moreover a strong focus of the program is to develop cord-blood transplantation for adult patients with hematologic malignancies. The laboratory studies center on understanding the immunological events that occur with graft-vs-host disease and methods to prevent this disease. The current efforts focus on understanding murine reconstitution following transplantation, use of a peptide polymer to block MHC class II recognition of minor histocompatibility antigens, use of T cell engineering to prevent graft-versus-host disease at the same time preserving a graft-versus-malignancy effect.

For more information see http://ed-media.mc.duke.edu/BMT.nsf